Music for December 20, 2020 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Latin Chant, arr. Jackson Hearn (b. 1958)
• Come, thou Long Expected Jesus - Stuttgart
• Amy Bogan, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Three Advent Preludes – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Savior of the Nations, Come
• Ave Maria
• Veni, Emmanuel
• Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming – Alfred V. Fedak (b. 1953)
• Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottes-Sohn, BWV 601 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• (Lord Christ, the only Son of God)

Since we are not able to sing safely yet in our services, I have made the effort to include as many hymns in the vocal and instrumental music as possible. Today, Amy Bogan is singing two of our most favorite and well-known Advent hymns.

Probably the first Latin chant that any of us learn is the Advent hymn, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel). This ancient advent hymn originated in part from the “Great ‘O’ Antiphons,” part of the medieval Roman Catholic Advent liturgy. On each day of the week leading up to Christmas, one responsive verse would be chanted, each including a different Old Testament name for the coming Messiah. When we sing each verse of this hymn, we acknowledge Christ as the fulfillment of these Old Testament prophesies. We sing this hymn in an already-but not yet-kingdom of God. Christ's first coming gives us a reason to rejoice again and again, yet we know that all is not well with the world. So along with our rejoicing, we plead using the words of this hymn that Christ would come again to perfectly fulfill the promise that all darkness will be turned to light. The original text created a reverse acrostic: “ero cras,” which means, “I shall be with you tomorrow.” That is the promise we hold to as we sing this beautiful hymn.

The other hymn is "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus." Charles Wesley  wrote this Advent hymn and printed it in his Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord (1744). Like so many of Wesley's texts, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" alludes to one or more Scripture passages in virtually every phrase. The double nature of Advent is reflected in this text, in which we remember Christ's first coming even while praying for his return. Stanzas 1 and 2 recall Advent prophecies in the Old Testament;